The Power of Goggles-Dark Summoning Saga #1
by Wartoisemon
Summary: First in the 'Dark Summoning' Saga. A new gogglehead kid is chosen. Will he follow the paths of his predescesors or make his own legacy? And will he be able to help the DD defeat an evil wrapped in mystery? {Ch. 3-Digivolve to Champion! is up. Guess
1. Dark Calling

Power of Goggles Chapter One:Dark Calling This is another DigiFic. Basically, it's the first in a long series about a group of new Digidestined and their adventures. It may be a little mysterious at first, but then again I couldn't reveal everything in the first fic, could I? Oh yeah, I'm trying to develop the characters a lot and evenly-which is why I'm making these fics in first person. 

Chapter One:Dark Calling 

"Checkmate." 

My little sister growled and cleared the board. "Best six out of eleven?" she offered. 

"Kali, will you stop playing with him?" Kali's Digimon partner, Yokomon said. About a year ago, my little sister Kali was involved in a bunch of weird monsters appearing. Something about a dark spore. Either way, she got a Nyokomon as her partner, which has eventually digivolved to Yokomon. "I want to play with you." 

"Sure Yokomon." she said. Kali was usually pretty nice, but she was still a sister. She went out to play catch with Yokomon-Yokomon having no arms, she caught it with the top of her head. 

That left me to take it down to the basement. I'm Guren Yamagi. I'm a pretty average kid...or so I thought. 

[AN:I chose Yamagi because it's Tai's Japanese last name. I figured that since I didn't know any real Japanese names besides Digidestined's, I should choose the only last name to get changed.] 

When I came up, my mom and dad were looking out the window with looks of shock on their faces. "What's up?" I queried. 

"Your sister just stopped playing and started walking." my mom responded. "I think Yokomon's trying to-" I never did find out what Yokomon was trying to do because my mother stopped in mid sentence. It was like she was in a trance. She didn't hold her arms out, mutter things and/or have red eyes, but I could tell she was being controlled. My dad was the same way. They started following Kali. 

"Guys? Guys?" I called. Neither of them answered. I followed them, and found out practically the whole town was walking down the middle of the road. Cars piled on the sidewalk. It looked like everybody was being controlled. 

"Yew oho!" a large, dinosaur/dragon thing said, waving it's arms. But the people just walked around it. A large insect buzzed around them yelling "Stop! Stop!" With a start I realized that Envenom and Stingmon were flying around the crowd! My sister had a thousand newspaper clippings about Digimon, and I flipped through them sometimes. 

I wondered where the possessed citizens were headed. It didn't take long to find out. It was the large Digiport located in the middle of the city. A portal to the Digital World, it was Odiba's standing landmark. I saw figures that I, almost in an instant, recognized as the Japanese Digidestined standing near the Digiport. I slowly, edged towards them, listening in on their conversation. 

"It's just illogical!" Kourishou Izumi said. "They seem to be in some sort of trance, but there's absolutely nothing that I know can be causing it. Unless there's a new enemy." 

"Don't you hear it?" said a female. It took me a few seconds to recognize Hikari Kamiya. "It's music." 

"I can't hear anything." Taichi Kamiya said. "You must be imagining stuff." 

"Uh...hi." I said, calling attention to myself. If some catastrophe was occurring, I wanted my name down on the plaque, and not as the person who cowered away, eavesdropping on the hero's conversation. All eyes were on me, and now that nobody was talking I could hear a faint melody from far off. 

"Who are you and why is your chest glowing?" Takeru Takashi asked. Chest glowing? I looked down and saw that a small light was in the middle of my chest. I could practically hear my heart pumping. I wasn't affected! My heart was glowing! Something exciting was about to happen to me. 

All my life I had hoped for adventure. And now, it was here, in the form of a small light on my chest. 

"Look, all the people all fixing in on one location!" Kourishou, or as he liked to be called "Izzy" said. "The Digital Gate! They must be trying to get to the Digital World!" 

Under Taichi(or Tai)'s command, we made a human barrier around the Digital Gate. But the humans jumped over us! I knew they shouldn't have been able to jump that high easily, but they did anyways. I whirled around to meet them, but a flash of light blinded me. In a second, the streets were empty save me and the Digidestined. They had to all be in the Digital World. 

An evil cackling filled the air. "Who's there!" Tai yelled, more of an exclamation than a question. 

"Why only me." an odd voice said. The holder of the voice emerged from a dark alleyway. I had never seen a Digimon like it. It looked like a human-shaped(and sized) Shakkoumon, except that the gems all over his body had darker colours. Plus he had a large musical instrument that appeared to be a flute sticking out where his mouth should be. "I am Flutemon, an Ultimate Level Digimon! With my Flat Note and Sound Barrier attack, you sure don't want to have a headache!" 

[A/N:Flutemon is my own Digimon, so don't steal him without my permission] 

"Ha ha." I muttered under my breath. 

"Armadillomon digivolved to...Ankylomon!"   
"Patamon digivolved to...Angemon!"   
"Ankylomon...Angemon...DNA Digivolve to...Shakkoumon!"   


I was watching the battle, but not really paying attention to it. Shakkoumon kept using Pachino Blaster, but Flutemon's Sound Barrier always broke the tupperware. But when Flutemon attacked with Flat Note, Shakkoumon just absorbed it and fired it back in a Harmonious Spirit. It was a pretty even match. But like I said, I wasn't really watching it. I was filled with amazement-the amazement that I would have an adventure, possibly even be a Digidestined. The fact that I hadn't turned into a zombie had to mean something. 

"Playtime's over!" Flutemon said ominously, adding in a Sound Barrier to break Shakkoumon's attack. "You haven't seen my best attack! Dark Calling!" 

My wondering of why Digimon past Rookie level always have to end their sentences with exclamation marks was replaced by pain in my chest. I looked down and while my ears heard odd music, my eyes saw the glowing light in my chest, almost looking like it was trying to get free. "It's that music!" Hikari, or Kari explained. 

"Everybody, get to the Digital Gate!" Shakkoumon ordered. We all ran. All of a sudden, the sharp pain in my chest increased. I stumbled to the ground, and all of a sudden the pain stopped. I heard something clatter to the ground, and dimly reached for it. It looked like some kind of Digivice. It had the console of a D-3, except without the bands of colour. Instead, two bands were at the bottom of the device, arched away from each other. One band was orange, the other blue. 

I looked behind me and saw only Shakkoumon and Flutemon. The others must have gone through the Digiport. I ran towards the Digital Gate, just as Shakkoumon turned back into Armadillomon and Patamon and jumped through. Flutemon turned around to see me and grinned. "Flat Note!" 

Instead of the normal Flat Note, a high-pitched scream filled the air-the kind that breaks glass times five. I covered my ears, and tried the hardest I could not to scream along with it. _Almost...there..._

CRACK! The screen of the Digital Gate shattered into a million pieces. The machine was broken. I was trapped here, soon to be destroyed by Flutemon-who had stopped the high note. 

In desperation, I held my strange device up to what was left of the Digital Gate. "Digiport Open?" I said, as if I was asking it's permission. 

To my suprise, it worked 


	2. Capture and Escape

Power of Goggles Chapter 2:Capture and Escape AN:I will try to refrain from using made-up Digimon as much as possible, but sometimes no real Digimon will fit into a certain character. However, Guren has a real Digimon. In fact, you probably know it. 

Chapter Two:Capture and Escape 

"Flat Note!" I jumped out of the attack's range, and it harmlessly hit the ground. Using my mysterious device-presumably some new model of Digivice-I concentrated on making the glowing rectangle grow. In just a few seconds, it was like a small door to the Digital World. 

Flutemon gave me a death glare, but I could see fear in his eyes. He hadn't completed his mission. I knew it was impossible for the Ultimate to be acting alone, and an Ultimate-or-higher master dosen't take kindly to failure. This was my chance. 

In a heartbeet, I flung myself through the digital door. I hit the ground hard. My device clattered away several feet and the door shut behind me. After a moment to recover my senses, I slowly lifted myself up and brushed off some loose gravel. As I headed towards my device(I had an instinct that I would need it), I heard noises coming from below me. I was on a trail on the side of a cliff, leading down to a canyon. The particular noise I heard was a scream. That can get almost anyone's attention. 

My eyes cautiously peered over the edge. The scream had come from Miyako "Yolei" Inoue as a dark binding had wrapped her up. The binding caried her to a giant clock face on a wall of the canyon. The other Digidestined watched with horror in their eyes as the dark binding attached itself to a small hook on the '1.' 

"Well it looks like we have some visitors." a mysterious and evil voice said. From a dark cave, a cloaked figure walked out. But his cloak was not made of cloth, but of darkness. This figure looked like a walking shadow. "Why don't you stay a while?" he taunted. 

"Sorry, but I've already got an apointment." A Digidestined known as Davis smirked back. "Get'em Exveemon." 

"Help'em Stingmon!" cried Ken Ichijoji, who used to be known as "Boy genius" but then as "Digimon Emporer" and then "Davis's sidekick." 

"Exveemon...Stingmon...DNA Digivolve to...Paildramon!" 

The Dragon Man Digimon aimed his cannon at the mysterious figure. "Either surrender, or you won't get the chance!" Paildramon yelled boldly. The shadow giggled as if Paildramon had made a good joke instead of a threat. This, apparently angered Davis. 

"Give it everything you've got!" he cried. 

"Right!" the DNA Ultimate responded. "Desparado Blaster!" He fired out his biggest blasts yet. All of a sudden, a chorus of words too numerous to disquinuish came from the cave. What must have been a couple thousand attacks of Rookie and Champion levels zoomed out at Paildramon. Needless to say, Veemon and Wormon were soon lying on the ground moaning. 

The telltale light of dedigivolving lit the dark cave, yet only for a second. It looked like a photo negative of the entiere town with the excpetion of me and the Digidestined, with each person having a Digimon somewhere around them. Then, it was pitch black again. 

In that time, the shady figure had binded the rest of the available Digidestined to the clock face, each to a different number. I noticed that there was only one hand on the clock, which appeared to be a minute hand. That hand looked sharper than a Snimon's blade, and it's tip was bent back so that if it passed anybody on thd clock, it would behead them. 

In one hour, all of the Digidestined could die. In fact, one of them could die in just five minutes. 

While I was watching the evil trap the Digidestined, I was half-absentmindedly bringing my Digivice closer to me. However, something lept onto me! I thrust around, trying to knock it off. It was red with black spikes, and it had the semi-common featherlike fur. It appeared to be about Rookie level. It kept squealing "Mine! Mine!", but quietly. It wasn't dumb enough to disturb this great power.   
  
I delivered a sharp blow to the thing's stomache. It cried out and fell back. The shadow-person's head snapped around. I saw the blade-hand almost at Yolei's throat. I had to act soon. 

I snapped my device away from the Digimon and pointed it at the dark binding that held the Digidestined of Love and Sincerity. _SSAP! _A beam of light cut across it, leaving it in several dark pieces. Yolei quickly fell to the ground. "Create a diversion!" I said, tossing the mystery Digimon towards the mysterious figure. It landed on top of his head, and brushed it off like pidgeon poop. In that short time, my beams of light had freed three more Digidestined. 

_SSAP! SSAP! SSAP! SSAP! SSAP! SSAP! _Now all of the children except for Yamato "Matt" Ishida were free, and heading towards the cave. As I looked towards it, I saw that it was empty. But I hadn't seen one of the people in the cave leave, much less all of them. Extremely odd, but nothing made sense in this world. 

Our enemy had apparently finished with the Digimon that I had found. The shady figure threw the red-and-black creature into the cliff wall with such force that the entire formation began to shake. The ground under me cracked away, sending me tumbling to what could very well be my doom. 

I was caught by a birdlike creature. It looked like a giant eagle with horns. _Aquilamon _I remembered. I quickly shot out a beam of light at the final bindings, freeing Matt. 

"Blast Rings!" Aquilamon called, but the energy rings phased out in mid-air. As my ride landed, a feline I immediately reconized as Gatomon ran towards it. 

"Aquilamon...Gatomon...DNA Digivolve to...Silphymon!" 

The bizzare Digimon jumped down to meet the figure with the shadow cloak. Sylphimon punched several jabs at him, but it kept moving back so they never made contact. The Ultimate flew up in the air gathered energy around it. It(it was hard to tell whether Silphymon was male or female) dove at the enemy, but when it halted the energy didn't keep going. It just paused along with Silphymon until it phased out. Something was keeping Silphymon from damaging the humanoid figure. 

Our mystery man(who couldn't look less worried) delivered a fierce punch to Silphymon's jaw. The DNA Digimon collided into the rock wall and soon reverted into Hawkmon and Gatomon. However, the wall was still cracking and soon enough it broke lose into a giant rockslide.   
  
The Digimon and Digidestined emerged from the cave. They were all in pairs for riding on flying Digimon Digimon. Five of the six were already departing. Kari and Izzy on Kabuterrimon, Jyou(or Joe) and Cody on Digmon, Tai and Takeru(TK for short) on Pegasusumon, Matt and Ken on Stingmon and Sora and Yolei on Birdramon. Their partners followed them. Davis on his Exveemon lowered himself to the ground. "Want a ride?" he asked with an idiotic smile on his face. I cautiously climbed aboard. 

"Wait for meeeeee!" Called the small creature I had encountered. It had apparently regained conciousness from hearing the rockslide, and jumped onto one of Exveemon's legs.   
  
As I looked behind at the rockslide and the evil we had narrowly escaped, I slowly checked my watch. 4:03. Me and Kali had started playing our last game of chest at 3:00. It took about ten minutes. In less than an hour, my life had changed darastically. 


	3. Digivolve to Champion!

The Power of Goggles Ch. 3:Digivolve to Champion Chapter 3:Digivolve to Champion!   


We had landed by a lake. It was a nice place, but we didn't notice. We were too busy arguing. 

As we were flying away, Stingmon with it's passengers Matt and Ken had started to hang low. Stingmon really wasn't meant to be a passsenger flyer. Our enemy(who apparently hadn't been hurt by the rockslide) took this to their advantage and shot some dark energy at the Insectoid Digimon, causing him to revert back to Wormon. Matt, Wormon, Ken and Gabumon were mysteriously pulled into the rockslide. 

"We have to save them!" Yolei said. 

"Now, let's not jump to conclusions." Jou(or Joe) argued. "For all we know they could be dead. That rockslide looked pretty dangerous." 

That silenced us all. "They can't be dead...can they?" Sora whispered. Death was a fickle thing. We know everybody will die, but when it actually happens to somebody we know, we can't help being suprised. 

"Don't worry." Tai said, trying to comfort the others. "Matt and Ken have faced dozens of evil Digimon. They won't let a couple old rocks beat them up." 

Everyone slowly nodded, but I could tell they still weren't quite certain. Truth was, I wasn't either. What if it was my fault? What if I was some kind of omen. _You're not. You saved them _I reminded myself. 

"We should at least look for them." Davis said. "C'mon, let's go." 

The others began brainstorming up a plan. I didn't say anything. I didn't want to. I knew what would happen if I spoke up. They would just look at me and kindly say "Sorry, but we've tried it before and it worked" or "Leave the planning to us more experienced kids" or even "Shut up." My ideas had been rejected before. 

"Hey Guren, you're not saying anything." It was from Davis. Maybe he had gone through the same kind of thing when he had become a Digidestined. Or maybe he was just being naive. He didn't look too smart. Either way, it was a direct invitation to speak that I couldn't ignore. 

"Well..." Their plan was a simple, blunt attack on the enemy. "The plan is too predictable. He'll be waiting for you, probably set up a trap. We should organize a search party." 

"The place wasn't full of dark energy a couple days ago." a voice said. From the bushes emerged the four-legged red thing I had met when I had first entered the world. 

"You're still here, little guy?" I asked. 

"Of course." he responded. "I was willing to act as a target for your little rescue party, so until you pay me back I won't leave you alone. Oh, and my name's Elecmon." 

"That's good, because Guren will need someone to protect him." TK said. 

Elecmon groaned. "Why do I have the fealing that I was just tricked." 

"Because you were." everybody answered back. 

"Oh." 

* * * 

A day later, we had organized a searched for Matt and Ken. We figured that since, according to Elecmon, the evil had just appeared suddenly, it could leave just as quickly. Thus, we decided to split up and search. Me and Cody were covering a lake area. 

So far, we hadn't found anything unusual. "TK and the others told me stories about this lake." Cody said, painfully trying to make conversation. "This was where Gabumon first digivolved to Garurumon. A Seadramon attacked them." 

I nodded, and glanced back at Armadillomon and Elecmon, who were trailing behind us. Armadillomon dipped his paw in the water-there was no beach like there should be around a lake on Earth. "There's something unsavory about this water." he said with that odd little cowboy accent of his. "You can't see it, but it's like it's poisonous or something." 

"Well, then don't drink the water." Elecmon said. "It's that simple." 

After we had walked halfway around the lake, Armadillomon looked up. "There's something there." he said, pointing to a forest. "Looks like a big cactus." 

All of a sudden, that big cactus exploded out from the trees. I now saw that it had punching gloves where the ends of the cactus should be, and it had three holes where it's face would be, trying to make some kind of face. 

"It's Togemon!" Cody cried out. "But...Mimi's in another area." 

"LIGHTSPEED JABBING!" the Togemon cried, running towards us in a blur, it's bozing gloves jabbing air. 

"Armadillomon digivolve to...ANKYLOMON!"   


I had only seen Ankylomon briefly before, right before he had DNA digivolved with Angemon. He was an odd, spiky dinosaur-like Digimon. Ankylomon jumped in front of us, and took Togemon's punches, only flinching and not appearing to take any serious damage. 

"You've had it easy so far, but let me give you a taste of my true power!" Togemon said. I noted "You've had it easy so far" as a good thing to say when someone beats you. "Needle Spray!" 

The needles started spraying off Togemon, sticking into Ankylomon's shell, mildly hurting him "Now, to finish you off!" Togemon yelled. Togemon rushed at Ankylomon and tackled it to the ground. Things weren't looking great fore either side. 

"Tail Hammer!" Ankylomon cried, bringing up his spiky tail, sending Togemon hurtling several feet-right into the lake! 

"It must've been a different Togemon" Cody muttered. "Dosen't matter, Togemon can't swim." 

"Can they walk on water?" I asked. 

"No, of course-what on Earth?" Togemon was floating on top of the water, a spot of dark energy right beneath it. 

"The Waters of Impurity." Togemon muttered. "Togemon dark digivolve to...GARBAGEMON!" 

"WHAT!" Cody yelled. "Togemon digivolves to Lilymon." 

"This Togemon must have had different data used, and he _did_Dark Digivolve." Anyklomon explained. Garbagemon jumped out of the water, allowing me to see his full, hideous form. He looked like a slimeball with somesort of cannon hiding in a trash can. He landed strait on Ankylomon's side, turning the Dinosaur Digimon over. Garbagemon brought a gooey fist down into Ankylomon's underside, causing it to revert to Armadillomon. 

"This isn't good." Elecmon said, before getting hit by a disc of slime called 'Junk Chunker.' Elecmon screamed something out, and landed several metres away. 

"Go get Elecmon, without him we'll probably lose!" Cody instructed. I nodded quickly and sprinted off towards Elecmon. 

"Junk Chunker!" The attack was right behind me. I had seen what it had did to Elecmon, and the fear made me run even faster. I felt a warm light up against my side, and realized that it was the mysterious device that had come out of my chest. Maybe it would help me out here. I kept running. Elecmon was only two metres away now. All of a sudden, both Elecmon and my device exploded into light. 

"Elecmon digivolve to...LEOMON!" All of a sudden, I was down on the ground, tackled by some guy who made football players look like worms. He had a fairly muscular body with some sort of red marking around his shoulders. His only clothes were a sturdy black pair of pants. His face was the part that told me he was Digimon and not just human. He had a long, yellow main covering most of his head besides his face, and he had a small black nose like that on an animal rather than a human nose. Lastly, he had cat-like ears. 

"That's Leomon!" Armadillomon cried. "A Champion level Digimon that fights for honor. His attack is the Fist of the Beast King." 

"Do your Fist of the Beast Ping or whatever it's called!" I ordered. Leomon grunted, but jumped up to his feet. 

"Fist of the Beast King! Fist of the Beast King! Fist of the Beast King!" Like a machine gun, Leomon threw out punches fast, but only hit air. However, he was not aiming to hit Garbagemon. Whenever he punched, a laser lionshead emerged from his fist and flew out at Garbagemon. They hit him. 

"KAYAA!" Garbagemon cried as it was pushed back into the lake. Immidiately the waters of the lake turned foul and green from Garbagemon's presence. 

"Now that it's in the water, Submarimon can handle it." Cody said reassuringly. "Digi-Armor Energize!" 

"Armadillomon armor-digivolve to...Submarimon, the Reliable Gaurdian of the Sea!" 

Armadillomon had now digivolved to an odd submarine creatuure. I didn't see much of it, as it zoomed into the toxic water immediately. I could see it's shillouete under the water, fighting Garbagemon's. "Oxygen Torpedo!" Echoed up from under water, and Garbagemon flew up closer and closer to the surface. Eventually, it came up, injured and looking as if it had swallowed a few gallons of water down there. 

"Beast Sword!" Leomon's plunged his sword into where a heart would be on a human. Garbagemon let out one final gasp before being deleted, tiny pieces of him swimming around in the sky, waiting to be reborn somewhere else. 

After the battle had been won, Leomon returned back to Elecmon. "I _never_ want to do that again!" Elecmon panted. 

"Hey, you could make Elecmon digivolve." Cody said as Submarimon returned to Armadillomon form. "I guess that means that Elecmon's your Digimon partner."  
  
"_He's_ my partner!" me and Elecmon both said dumboundedly. Cody cracked a grin. 

Ten minutes later, a beep came out from Cody's pocket. "I've got mail." he muttered, pulling out his D-Terminal and reading the message. He looked up at me, his expression solemn. "Kari and Sora have found a big dark pit." 


	4. Digital Phantoms

Power_of_Goggles4 Chapter 4:Digital Phantoms 

We rode on Digmon, perplexed by many things. For one thing, were Matt and Ken alright? For another,who was the enemy? Also, how could we stop them? And lastly, how on earth could Digmon fly? 

However he did it, Digmon flew fast. In half an hour, we reached Sora and Kari. They had been investigating a forest area when "all of a sudden, a dark pit opened up beneath us." It turned out that they were telling the truth, as we saw a large gaping dark pit that spawned about fifteen metres. 

"This just opened up half an hour ago." Sora said, for all that forgot the message. None had. 

"I feel darkness in it." Kari said. According to Cody, Kari was very in-tune with thebalance of light and darkness. Twice she had fallen victim to the Dark World, some sort of dimension full of darkness. Codt had said that Izzy had said that Kari had powers that she ahd used during the battle with somebody called Machinedramon. I would have prefered to hear it from Kari herself, but the good old-fashioned grapevine still worked. 

"Somebody should go down there." Tai suggested. "Only one, in case they get in trouble." 

"But who?" Davis asked. "I think I should go because-" 

But we never got to hear Davis's reasoning because at that moment a deep voice echoed across the forest. "WHY DON'T I SAVE YOU THE TROUBLE OF DECIDING! ALL OF YOU CAN COME DOWN!" 

All of a sudden, the edge of the black pit shot out five metres. I, along with the rest of the Digidestined, felt the ground vanish from under us. Then we were falling...falling...voices...light...digivolving..." 

"Agumon digivolve to...Greymon!   
Greymon digivolve to...Metal Greymon!" 

"Biyomon digivolve to...Birdramon!   
Birdramon digivolve to...Garudamon!" 

"Patamon digivolved to...Angemon!" 

"Gatomon armor-digivolved to...Nefertimon, the Angel of Light!" 

"Veemon digivolve to...ExVeemon!" 

"Hawkmon digivolve to...Aquilamon!" 

"Armadillomon armor-digivolved to...Digmon, the Drill of Knowledge!" 

I hit leathery flesg covered by thin fur. As I looked around, I saw that Elecmon was beside me, groaning. MetalGreymon and Garudamon had caught most of us, but Nefertimon, Angemon, ExVeemon, Aquilamon and Digmon had caught their respective partners. 

"Uh, how were you going to able to digivolve to Ultimate?" Tai asked, blinking. 

"I'm not quite sure myself." MetalGreymon admitted. "I just felt like I was able to, and did. Hey, if it's not broken don't fix it." 

"Now that we didn't go splat on the windshield, let's just fly out of here." Elecmon said impatiently. To be honest, I sort of agreed with him. 

"Wait." TK said, holding out his green D-3. "I'm getting a signal. Two actually." 

Everybody else pulled out their Digivice or D-3 and presumably saw what TK was talking about. It now occured to me that I had no Digivice or D-3. Perhaps the object that had shot out of my chest on that fateful day(which was yesterday)? I had seen it flash light when Elecmon had digivolved to Leomon, just like Cody's had done when Armadillomon had digivolved to Ankylomon. I unhooked the device from my belt, and saw now that it had five buttons on it, arranged in a semicircle around the screen. 

I hit the button farthest to the left. After several more hits, I realized that it wasn't responding. The inner left button was the same way. I pressed the center button and a message scrolled across the screen. NO TARGET SELECTED. 

When I figured that I'd better not select a target because I might blow it up or make it infinately strong, I pressed the innerright button and saw on the screen twelve blinking dots. Ten of them(five white, and one each of green, pink, red, blue, yellow and half-orange half-blue) were close to each other. Nearly at the edge of the screen, there were two other dots-one white one and one black one. 

"It's Matt and Ken." Sora said, breaking the silence. 

As I would later learn, TK was the Digidestined of Hope. And certainly his next statement was a beacon of hope for all of us. "Digital bodies delete after they die." 

Yolei broke out in a smile. "They're not dead!" 

A cry of pain came out from beneath us, snapping everyone to attention. "That's Wormon's scream!" Nefertimon exclaimed. With that, we descended slowly to a ground made of something like cement. I jumped off Metal Greymon and felt the cement-like ground under me. There was an unnatural silence floating around, like the calm before the storm. Elecmon was still clinging to MetalGreymon's wing. He sure was paranoid. 

We waited almost a full minute before something happened. A blond-haired teenager burst through the darkness and fell to the ground. The boy was wearing a white shirt, dirtied up to the point where it appeared to have never been cleaned: and blue jeans with a number of holes counted in double digits. The boy himself was in even worse condition. Bruises, cuts and wounds in mid-healing covered every inch of his skin I could see. I didn't reconize the injured boy. 

Behind him, a small Digimon inched into sight. It was Wormon-a Wormon atleast, because I had never seen Ken's Wormon's so unclean. Like the boy, he was injured incredibly. His markings were made indistinguishable by the smudges of dirt that had accumulated on his body. A small scar ran across where an eyebrow would be on a human.   
  
For a moment, everybody just stared. Then, Sora cried out "Matt!" and rushed over to help the boy up. now that I looked closely, it was Yamato Ishida, but I had never seen him so roughed up before. His jacket was gone, and he looked like he hadn't bathed in months and had been falling down on sharp rocks for a week. 

"Ken and ga-gabu-Gabumon are back there." Matt stampered, painfully jerking a thumb backwards. All of us(except for Sora, who was buisy helping Matt) rushed foward. I spotted two shilouetes laying on the ground which I immediately associated with Ken and Gabumon. 

TK raced foward, lifting Gabumon up. "Are you okay?" hey asked. 

Gabumon's eyes snapped open suddenly. The Rookie Digimon grabbed TK's D-3 and said "I am now." 

TK let out a sharp cry of "They're fake!" just before Sora's scream. We all ran back to find Sora being held by a bizaare creature. It looked like one of those excedingly lame ghost costumes, a. k. a. a while sheet that's thrown over your head; except with real eyes(instead of two black dots drawn on with marker) and a mouth with teeth sharper than those of any ghost costume. 

"That's Bakemon." Elecmon said fearfully." "A shapeshifting ghost Digimon who's attack is the Darkness Claw!" 

I risked a glance behind me and saw that "Ken", "Wormon" and "Gabumon" had all turned into Bakemon. We had been tricked and now we were trapped. 

I noticed that each Bakemon had a Digivice at it's side. Two had original Digivices and two had D-3s-one green and one black. I assumed that they had been stolen from Sora, Matt, TK and Ken respectively.   
  
The Bakemon holding Sora grinned. "Just a little jolt of power boss!" he yelled upwards. A moment later, the stolen Digivices began to glow. 

"Bakemon digivolve to...Phantomon!" three voices said in unison behind me. I whiled around to see that the three Bakemon had been replaced with what could've been green reapers if they had been wearing black cloaks instead of red and white ones and if I could see skulls under their hoods instead of just yellow eyes. 

"Those are Phantomon." Palmon informed. "This digivolved form of Bakemon is a master of the deadly Shadow Scythe attack!" 

I noticed that the Bakemon holding Sora hadn't digivolved yet. The light on the original Digivice it fashioned just kept getting brighter and brighter. Then... 

"Bakemon warp digivolve to...Piedmon!" It was hard to describe the creature now holding Sora. It looked somewhat like an evil clown. 

TK's lip began to tremble. "You'll have to forgive TK." Angemon said. "The last Piedmon we encoutered traumatized us all, expecially TK. His Trump Sword and Clown Trick attacks made the Dark Masters seem weak!" 

I didn't know who the Dark Masters were, but I knew beter than to ask. "Wing-" Garudamon started, the beggining of an attack forming between her wings. Piedmon held out a finger and shook it. 

"Don't attack me, I have a shield." Piedmon said, indicating Sora. He was right. We couldn't attack with out killing Sora. It would be murder. From far off, I could hear two Phantomon dueling with Angemon and Metal Greymon. A third Phantomon proceded to attack Garudamon, initiating a battle that took place high above Piedmon and Sora. 

I decided that it was now my time to take charge. The other Digidestined just stood there, trembling. We were wide open for attack. "Retreat!" I ordered. 

"But...what about Sora?" Garudamon asked, right before Phantomon slashed her in the wing. 

"We might lose Sora." I said coldly. "But if we continue fighting we're almost certain to lose her and probably all of us too." 

Everybody nodded solemnly, but they I could tell they still had doubts about whether this was the right thing. I could tell that they had never thought about their own lives in battling, it had only been the Digimon involved in the fight before. Now, all of them were at risk and they couldn't decide whether or not it was right to leave someone behind. However, the three Phantomon eached floated down in front of Piedmon at that moment, holding Agumon, Biyomon and Patamon. 

"They were too strong." Agumon murmured faintly. 

Kari, Davis, Yolei and Cody were running towards their modes of transport, but a few daggers from Piedmon hit their Digimon and they all reverted to their Rookie forms(except for Gatomon, who was a Champion.) "Oh, don't worry." the phantom Digimon said cruelly. "I have a nice place for you to retreat to. You see, it's a cell that's big enough to accompany the ten of you, but small enough so you won't be comfortable. The walls are made up of the same material that Control Spires are, activated of course. And your D-Terminals will be taken offhand so you don't have to worry about silly things like armor-digivolving." 

We were trapped. 

[AN:Another cliffhanger. Chapter Five will be a biggie, and Chapter Six will be the climax battle. After that they'll be an epilogue and then the next "book" in the saga. Sigh...so much to write.] 


End file.
